:: Liquid Weather ++ ::
License
Requirements
Download
Authors
Description
Button Guide
FAQ
License:
Released under the GPL, version 2.
Except icon themes, which are released pursuant to the restrictions
imposed by their authors.
Requires:
Requires SuperKaramba
>= version 0.33
Download:
The latest Liquid Weather ++ tarball is here
Authors:
Original Karamba theme on which this theme is based by Rodion
"Pythonised" and "feature enriched" by Matt
New BBC parsing code by Elad
Tsur, as well as nifty new stuff for BBC daily forecasts
Weather data processing code and original BBC parsing code by Heikki
Other original gui configuration ideas by Adam
Geitgey
Umicons by Mattahan and used with permission. See Mattahan's
websites: Mattahan.Web1000.com
and Mattahan.deviantart.com
Flat backgrounds provided by Andrew Crouthame
Cynapses background by gladiac. Go here
to get the cynapses system monitor theme.
Flat Desktop Style backgrounds and icons provided by Danny Allen.
You can get the rest of the Flat Desktop Style here.
Description:
This is a desktop applet for displaying weather information and
forecasts. It all runs from a python script. You can click on the
weather images to get more detail about the forecast for that day, or
the current weather conditions. If you use the weather.com site,
you can view up to date satellite images of your location. You
can also have up to 5 webcams available for viewing. The theme
should be self contained in
the "liquid_weather_plus" directory provided.
The theme now contains the changes added by Adam Geitgey (superkaramba
author). It also contains some exciting new additions from Heikki
Lehvaslaiho. Heikki has done some major work on the data
structures - he has basically rewritten the engine for converting the
data parsed from the relevant websites into something that the script
can utilise. This was a major undertaking, which I am still
getting to grips with.
Button Guide:
Main Icon:
If you left click on this icon, then a panel showing the current
weather details will drop down. Left click again, and it will
disappear again. Middle click on this icon to get the hourly
forecast for the next 7 hours. Middle click again, and the hourly
forecast will disappear. If you put your mouse over the icons in
the hourly forecast, a tooltip will display the sky conditions.
Day Icons:
If you left click on one of these icons, then a panel
showing the current weather details will drop down. Left click
again, and it will disappear again.
Satellite Picture
Icon:
This is the small left hand
icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to
get a list of regions available. Choose your region, and then you
should get a list of available maps. Click on one of the menu
items, and
the relevant map will drop down. Left click on the button again
and the map
will disappear again. If you middle click on this button while
the map is being displayed, then the fullsize image will
open in a separate window.
Webcam Picture Icon:
This is the small right hand
icon near the top right of the theme. Left click on this icon to
get a list of the webcams available to view. Click on one of the
webcams, and the picture will drop down. Left click again and it
will disappear
again. If you middle click on this button while the webcam image
is
being displayed, then the fullsize image will open in a separate window.
FAQ:
Q: How do I tell Liquid
Weather ++ to get the weather report for my local area?
A: Right click on the
theme. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on either
"Find weather on weather.com" or "Find weather on BBC", depending on
which service you want to use. Then enter the name of your
city. If there is more than one city with that name in the world,
or more than one forecast for your city, you will be presented with a
list of forecasts to choose from. If you are searching on
weather.com, and there is only one forecast available for your city,
then you won't get a list of options, your forecast will just
load. If there is no forecast available on the service you are
searching, then you'll get a message to this effect.
Q: How do add a
webcam picture?
A: Right click on the
them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on
"Add webcam URL". Then enter the url that points to the
webcam picture you want to have displayed when you middle click on the
main weather icon. Make sure that this URL points to a static
image. This means that you probably can't use a webcam that uses
java, or some other fancy-dan protocol to stream its images. If
the URL doesn't point to a static image, or a bad URL, the theme should
spit an error at you. You will then need to add a label for the
webcam. This will be the name that appears in the popup menu when
you click the webcam button.
Q: How do I remove a webcam
picture?
A: Right click on the
them. Go to the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on
"Remove webcam URL". Select the webcam you want to remove from
the list, and that's it.
Q: When I click
on an icon, the
detail panels cycle quickly through all the days, and then stop.
How do I fix this?
A: Upgrade superkaramba to 0.32 or later.
Q: I hate the cheesy icon
animations. How do I turn that shit off?
A: Just right click, and go to the "Configure Theme"
menu. Then click on "Disable icon animation".
Q: Can I change the background
image?
A: Funny you should mention it, cos you can. Go to
the "Configure Theme" menu. Click on "Change Background".
Choose a background from the list, and the background will be whichever
you choose.
Q: I want to use a 24 hour
clock. Can I?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check
the "Use a 24-hour clock" option.
Q: I live in a modern country
that uses the metric system. How do I get rid of that imperial
rubbish?
A: Click on the "Configure Theme" menu. Then check
the "Use metric units (Celcius)" option.
Q: I have set my location using
weather.com, but it doesn't change to my location. What can I do?
A: Send me an email on dmbkiwi@yahoo.com.
You need to specify the location code you are using, so I can see what
the underlying weather data looks like.
Q: The text is cut off. Can I
fix this?
A: Upgrade to
superkaramba 0.33. The text should be a fixed size relative to
the rest of the theme. Previous text issues in superkaramba
should be fixed in version 0.33. Also make sure you have the
verdana and arial black fonts available - they are MS web fonts, and I
think they are available as a free download from sourceforge.
Google for them.
Q: I want to see
the webcam
picture full-size. How do I do this?
A: When the
webcam picture is displayed in the theme, middle click on the webcam
button and the image will
open full size in kuickshow.
Q: The wind arrows point to
where the wind is coming from, rather than where it's blowing to.
That's not right. How do I fix it?
A: Right click on the theme, go to the configuration
menu, and select "Wind arrows show where wind blows to". When I
first did the theme, I thought it made more sense to have the arrows
point to where the wind comes from. Others have said that is
counter-intuitive. You choose which you prefer.
Q: Those sure are perty icons,
but I'm getting bored with them. Got any others?
A: Yes. Right click, go to the configure menu, and
select "Change the iconset". Then choose one of the four
available iconsets.
Q: When temperatures are
negative, the temperature text doesn't fit in the theme. Can I
adjust the font size?
A: Right click on the them, go to the configure menu, and
select "Use narrower font on forecast temp ranges". This changes
the font for temperature displays, so that they are narrower, and the
negative temperatures fit inside the theme properly. When you
click this option, the theme switches to using the Arial Narrow
font. If you don't have this installed, it is now included in the
tarball in the "fonts" directory. Just install it as you would
any other true type font. Bear in mind that there is a font
install utility in the kde control centre.
Q:
Whenever the theme updates, it freezes, and is unresponsive while it
updates, and then returns to normal. Can you change things, so
that it's reponsive when it updates?
A: The
theme disables threading by default. This is because some people
experience crashes if threading is enabled. If you want to try
threading, uncheck the option in the configure menu. However, if
you experience crashes, you will need to turn it off.
Q: Sometimes the theme just
crashes, and no longer works. This usually happens when the theme
updates. What's going on?
A: The theme does not use threading by default.
However, if you configure the theme to use threading, then you may
experience crashes/freezes, beyond the transitional freezes that happen
when the them updates. The threading doesn't play nicely
with everyone's set
up. There is an option in the configure menu to disable
threading. If you are experiencing these crashes, then switch on
the "Disable threading" option. HOWEVER, be warned; if you
disable threading, then the theme will become unresponsive while
updating. If you run several superkaramba themes off one
superkaramba instance, then they will all become unresponsive while the
theme updates. If you want to minimise this, run liquid weather
from its own superkaramba instance.
Q: Even though I've set certain
options on the configure menu, when I restart the theme, the settings
have gone back to the default. How to I make the settings stick?
A: The config file is only updated when you close, reload, or
quit the theme. If you exit the theme by just closing your KDE session,
then the config file won't be saved.
Q: The theme
found my city, but when I display the details for today, it shows a
nearby city. How do I make it show my city?
A: Sometimes, the weather data is
measured from a nearby city or town. If you want the theme to display
your city name, right click on the theme, go to the configure menu, and
click on the "Display alternative city" option.
Q: If I'm using imperial
measures, the wind speed in the hourly forecast still shows as
kph. What's up?
A: It's a known bug - I'm working on it.